Schooling in Valencia region for children with special needs

By law any public school (or subsidized privat school) has to find a way to accomodate all students with disabilities. The definition of "accomodate", however, is very open to interpretation. The first thing you should do is get the paperwork from your Spanish pediatritian's office that specifies exactly what your son's limitations are and what he would need to participate fully in school and the activities the school offers. From there you could talk to schools themselves and see what kinds of solutions they can offer you. In my experience, some schools may try to explain that they don't have the resources to accomodate special needs, but know that if they accept any money at all from the government (and most do) they absolutely have to offer you a reasonable solution. Of course, I'm sure that some schools are very helpful as well :) You could ask your pediatrician about local associations for sight-impaired people. They could probably help you out with this a lot.
Good luck!

There is an excellent section on schools in Spain, including International schools. I am sure the International school in the area will be able to offer help. Good luck. Try this www.aplaceabroad.com (http://www.spainexpat.com/spain?URL=http://www.aplaceabroad.com)

I believe Jane H is referring to the section here (http://www.spainexpat.com/spain?URL=http://www.aplaceabroad.com/spain/schools-guide.htm) specifically...

> My son is visually impaired. He has some vision and can read and write and he currently goes to mainstream school in the UK, i'm wondering if Spain have a similar setup?

If anyone know or can point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated.


Also check out Once. They are the organization in Spain which does a lot of fundraising (mostly through lotteries, they kinda have a monopoly, you'll see them everywhere) for the blind. I know you said your son isn't blind, just impaired, but they might be a good, internationally-minded place to start asking for information about different programs available. Check out their education page (in English even!!!) here (http://www.spainexpat.com/spain?URL=http://www.once.es/vocacion/webenglish/fr09.htm).

Hope that helps!

Hi there Adele!

I hope that things worked out for you and your son.

I was wondering if you could help me or point me in the right direction. My family and I are hoping to move to Spain (possibly the Valencia region), my eldest daughter has Down Syndrome. I have been trying to contact international schools in Spain to see if they take children with special needs, however, so far the response has been pretty disappointing. They say they do not have provisions for children with special needs.

I was comforted by the response that you had to your post which said that by law schools have to accommodate children with special needs. I was wondering whether you had any joy in finding a school for your son? If so, are you able to tell me which one? I had been looking at international schools but would be happy if my daughter went to a state school whilst having some assistance.

Many thanks,

Saphia. :-)

Hi - I'm picking this thread up 8 months on so perhaps there's noone who is going to see this.
Anyway, I'm in the same boat as Saphia. I am English, married with 3 kids. Our eldest daughter also has Downs Syndrome (She's 13). We are planning to move to Valencia in April '08 and wanted to start looking into schooling for her.
if anyone can give me some advice, that would be very warmly appreciated.
Thanks alot.
Peter

I'm quite sure all state schools in spain by law need to give assistance to those with special needs; now there maybe schools which have better facilities than others, but this is the same for all schools regardless. Unless you are looking for schools interily devoted to special needs children (in which case you may want to ask local education departments where they are), my best suggestion would be to take visits at various areas you are interested moving to and visit the local schools, talk to school officials and faculty. Its amazing how much info one can get just talking to locals and absorbing feedback.

We want to move to spain (from italy) in the not so near future and my wife has been working with special needs children and adults for over 15 years and thats what she hopes to be doing once we move so I want to learn more about the work possibilities there (valencia, barcellona area)

Hope that helps and get luck